1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording medium, which is a medium to be recorded by ink ejected in an inkjet recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an inkjet recording method is widely used in offices as well as in home use, etc.
In an inkjet recording method, an inkjet recording medium in which a recording layer having a porous structure for receiving ink is formed has been developed for the purpose of improving various characteristics, and been practically used. For example, there is an inkjet recording medium including a support and provided thereon a recording layer having high porosity that includes inorganic pigment particles and a water-soluble binder. Such an inkjet recording medium is excellent in an ink receiving property (quick-drying property) due to the porous structure, also has high glossiness, and is widely used as a material that enables recording of photograph-like images.
On the other hand, there is a demand for transport pathways such as front paper feeding and front paper ejection for downsizing of inkjet printers or easiness of handling of inkjet printers.
However, conventional inkjet recording materials that have been used until now, for example, inkjet recording materials including a support having a base paper and resin layers formed on both faces of the base paper and a porous-type ink-receiving layer formed on the support, are brittle upon bending. Specifically, they have problems of breaking and cracking when they are passed through a transport pathway having small curvature under environments with low temperature and low humidity.
Meanwhile, a support for imaging materials, which is covered with a roughened resin layer (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-98492), and an inkjet recording medium including a support having an ink absorbing layer on one face thereof and an embossed surface on the other face thereof (e.g., see JP-A No. 2001-260529) have been disclosed. It has been reported that the former is excellent in pencil-writing property and the latter allows easy distinction of the recording surface from the other surface.
As mentioned above, materials in which a back face opposite to the recording surface is roughened and materials in which a back face is embossed have conventionally existed. However, materials merely having such structures have poor effects to improve brittleness of recording materials having porous layers, for example, cracking of porous layers. Furthermore, the latter has low rigidness in both length and width directions when it is held by hand, and the product quality is also deteriorated.